Page 38 of Brandt's Rule

“So this is your first night out?” Remi asked.

“Yes,” Tempest said.

“Well, it’s time you found out what you’ve been missing!” Barron said. “Somebody order her a drink. And you… let’s go.” Barron reached out and took her by the hand, pulling her into the people already moving in the middle of the dance floor. She watched Barron’s body sway with the music, then began to mimic him while watching the other females dancing with their partners. It only took a few minutes and Tempest was laughing and moving with the music like she’d done it all her life.

“You want to dance?” Remi asked Bailey.

Bailey smiled and nodded, putting her purse on the bar top between Ronan and Brandt. She took Remi’s hand and he led her out to where Barron and Tempest were dancing.

Brandt clenched his teeth as he signaled the bartender.

“What’ll you have?” he asked.

“I don’t know, something fruity…” he said, until he heard Tempest’s voice in his head. Bourbon on the rocks. Brandt sighed and changed his order. “Something fruity, and a bourbon on the rocks.”

“Coming right up. The rest of y’all need topping off?”

“Yeah, that’d be good. Another round for everybody,” Brandt said.

While Brandt waited for the bartender to bring another round for everybody, and the first drink of the night for Bailey and Tempest, he sat with his back to the bar, watching Tempest as she thoroughly enjoyed herself. It did not escape him that there was no doubt that she obviously heard him scolding her for being late and causing him to worry. It was confirmed when she’d let him know what drink she wanted, that she could hear his thoughts as well as he heard hers. What was unusual was that he wasn’t sending his thoughts to her concerning the type of drinks to order. But she heard anyway.

The song ended and another began, this one faster and from the laughter from just about everyone on the dance floor, more fun than the last. He watched as Barron took Tempest in his arms and began to spin her around the room. Shaking his head at Barron in the middle of stirring shit up again, whether intentional or not, he just turned his back on the whole dance floor and raised a finger at the bartender again.

“Yeah! I forget something?” the bartender asked.

“No. I did. Can I have a couple of shots?” Brandt asked.

“Sure, what do you want?”

“Don’t give a damn. Just a couple of shots.”

“Coming up,” the bartender said.

Brandt downed the first of the shots the bartender lined up in front of him, then took a deep breath, allowing the warmth of the alcohol to permeate his body.

“You alright?” Ronan asked.

Brandt blew out a breath, his gaze straight ahead focused on the bottles on the wall behind the bar. “You ever think you got shit organized, lined up like it’s supposed to be, everything’s good in your world, and then something completely unexpected falls into the middle of your shit like a bomb, making everything scatter into a million pieces and proving to you that you don’t have control of a goddamn thing?”

“Uhh, no,” Ronan answered.

“Yeah, me neither,” Brandt said, turning to find Tempest on the dance floor once more. Just as he did the music changed again, this time a slow, heartfelt ballad about a wayward guy finding his love and her being his saving grace. He watched as Barron maintained his hold on Tempest’s hand and pulled her into his body, holding her close as he spoke softly at her ear. “No! No, no, no, fuck no,” Brandt snapped as he stomped toward the dance floor, his eyes laser focused on his best friend holding the female that had caused him nothing but angst and unrest since she’d arrived, close against his body as he swayed back and forth to the music. “I said no!” Brandt snapped when he was finally standing beside them.

Barron looked over at Brandt. “When? What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m saying. You want to go there?” Brandt demanded.

“All you have to do is say, ‘Can I cut in?’. Damn, dude, has it been that long since you were at a dance? Don’t you know how that works?”

“This is not a dance. This is a bar. And I’m cutting in. Move,” Brandt said, reaching out and physically taking Tempest’s hand out of Barron’s, very gently surprisingly, as he shooed Barron away with the other. Brandt watched with a stern expression on his face as Barron laughed himself silly with every step as he went back to the bar to stand with Ronan. Only then, did he look at Tempest. He looked deeply into her eyes as he placed her hand on his shoulder, then pulled her in to hold her body against his. He wrapped his hand around the small of her back, and another around the back of her neck and maintained the nearly unbreakable gaze they were locked in.

“Better?” she asked.

“Much,” he answered.

“Is there a problem I’m not aware of?” Tempest asked.

“Nope.”

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